NEW YORK -- Vanessa Williams, whose nude photos in Penthouse led to her abdication as Miss America, said today she was hopeful her future would be filled with success because 'there is no where to go but up.'
'I know it was a mistake, of course,' she said of the pictures during an interview on NBC's 'Today' show. 'I wished it never happened but I'm going to move on from here.'
Miss Williams, the first black Miss America, stepped down Monday under pressure from pageant officials after the sexually explicit photos of her and another woman were printed in Penthouse.
Miss Williams said she never gave permission for the pictures taken in 1982 to be printed and gave up her title because she did not 'want any kind of battle or fight or division with the people who supported me.'
'Right now I feel relieved. I got to say my side of the story,' said Miss Williams, 21, of Millwood, N.Y.
'I know I'm strong ... but there are sacrifices you have to make,' she said. 'A lot of people said to me, 'Don't give it up.' But I think it was a better thing to do.
'I just spoke to Coretta Scott King. Her words of support, courage and pride have made it worthwhile.'
Miss Williams said she enjoyed her 10-month reign and felt she did a 'great job.' Now, she said, she wants to get on with her entertainment career.
'The tears came. It was rough,' she said of the controversy. 'And now I'm ready to work and move on. This is rock bottom and there's nowhere else to go but up. You can't stop. You can't quit.
'I'm looking forward to doing something,' she said. 'I'm more talented than I was when I started in September and that will help me in entertainment business.'
Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione said today he feels sorry for Miss Williams but insisted she has no one to blame but herself.
'I'm getting tired of being the heavy in this,' Guccione said on the CBS 'Morning News.'
Guccione said Miss Williams, as part of her participation in the 1983 Miss America Pageant, agreed to reveal anything that could affect her reign.
'She elected not to disclose that information and in a certain sense you might say that she knowingly deprived another, perhaps more deserving, girl of the title. ... She gambled and loss,' he said.
The new Miss America, runnerup Suzette Charles, said she had taken over the title with 'mixed emotions.'
'Vanessa and I were friends,' she said. 'It's hard to be happy and sad at the same time. But I will call her and we will talk before the week is out.'
'She left with class,' Miss Charles said.
Roy Grutman, a lawyer for Guccione said he met Monday with lawyers for Miss Williams and he expected them to sue the magazine.
'They didn't say so explicitly, but everything they did made me suspect they would (sue,)' Grutman said.
Miss Williams' attorney John Frankenheimer said in Los Angeles that a decision had not been made.
'I can say only that Miss Williams and her representatives are currently evaluating the situation,' Frankenheimer said.
Grutman said the magazine has a release signed by Miss Williams, legally entitling them to reprint the pictures.
Miss Williams said she could only recall signing an application to be placed on a model registry -- not a release for the photos to be published.
'It is apparent to me that because of all that has happened during the past week, it would be difficult for me to make an appearance as Miss America,' Miss Williams said Monday in a calm voice before hundreds of reporters and photographers.
Despite the furor, she said, 'I fully support the Miss America pageant and the opportunity it has provided' for other women like her.
Miss Williams will be allowed to keep $125,000 in appearance fees earned since last September along with the $25,000 cash scholarship. Miss Charles received a $17,000 scholarship as first runnerup, to which pageant officials will add $8,000.
Miss Williams, with her family at her side, read a statement saying she posed for the pictures in 1982 while on summer vacation from Syracuse University and working as a receptionist and makeup artist in a Mount Kisco, N.Y., modeling agency.
She said the photographer, Tom Chiapel, assured her the photos would only be in silhouette, she would not be recognizable, and would be kept secret. Miss Williams never told her parents about the photos.
